We're currently in the US but planning an extended visit to Switzerland this summer. We're also dairy free/gluten free and soy and corn free. And we love dark chocolate which in the US we mostly get from South America it seems now--it is the best we can get here without dairy/soy etc. and it is organic, fair trade etc.--very tasty and melts in your mouth.
Looking at European chocolate I noticed that most of what we find here--- if not all---contains soy. Even Brands like Godiva and Toblerone, which I used to love in the past appear to have been bought by major/global manufacturers and the quality has changed--we can no longer eat that with our current diet restrictions.
Are there any Swiss brands we should look for that have good quality, non-dairy, non-soy chocolate? My husband and I are contemplating bringing our own South American chocolate with us, but that sounds ridiculous when coming to Switzerland--there must be some non-soy, non-dairy chocolate there--right?
Thank you for any suggestions.
FREY's Noir Special 72% does not have soy lecithin. The ingredients are: Kakaomasse, Zucker, Kakaobutter, Kakaopulver, Aroma. We buy it at our local grocery store.
Oh good!! Thank you so much! So we'll still find "good chocolate" in the land of "good chocolate" That's good to know. I did not have access to their ingredients on line--or didnt' know how to access them--but I know they have a factory my daughter would love to visit. Thank you again.
But Frey chocolate products normally state (at least a couple of months ago) that they may contain traces of gluten.
The equivalent product from COOP is gluten free but may contain traces of milk or soy.
Thank you for that little detail. There's always something with these special diets. It is unfortunate about Frey, and even Schar, the European GF company of choice because most often those who are gluten intolerant/sensitive, Celiacs or not, develop additional allergies/intolerances due to permeable intestines AKA --leaky gut and become intolerant to other things--most often dairy/soy and corn plus whatever else they are eating most of--usually the staple foods. These are secondary intolerances and if identified and avoided for a while and proper digestive support is followed, the gut can properly heal and most of the secondary intolerances can go away---but most doctors/patients do not know about them and so they do not get addressed. Plus it is not an overnight thing. So thank you for pointing out these pitfalls. Will look into other options.
Frankly, I’d be more concerned about your general eating than just chocolate. Switzerland is nowhere near as up on special dietary requirements as the US and UK. There are a few gluten free products here, but I’m not sure about finding food without the other stuff.
Yes, I know. I've written to Schar and they told me flat out they only have corn and soy as replacement flours. We can skip the bread I am sure for my daughter at least---my husband and I are not as sensitive though he actually is to soy. In the US we have Udi's and they have much more than just staple bread and cereal. Their products include delicious GF/CF/SF/Corn F and egg F products of all kinds--flours, pizza crust, muffins, cakes etc.
I only hope we can get grilled meats and boiled rice and steamed veggies at restaurants. The chocolate would be a nice treat though. Sort of the expected Swiss treat----but if they do not consider allergies--we'll just have to give our business to South America in the end and bring our own chocolate with us. Thank you for reminding me of the special diet difficulties that lie ahead. Yes, they do go beyond just chocolate.
Well, the Swiss are pretty good on the grilled meat side of things. In many places like Coop, Migros, Manora restaurants they will cook it fresh for you. Not sure about the steamed veg and rice, but the veggies will be available, just not certain they steam them.
Here’s a page from the www.coop.ch website about their restaurants. The pictures will give you an idea of the sort of things you can find in these type of restaurants.
http://www.coop.ch/pb/site/restauran…staurant12.jpg
